Beautiful Bird
by Cashelle-gone-Crazy
Summary: Fred and George decide to give Ron some love potion so he will act on his love for Hermione. Mishap ensues though, when he doesn't fall for who they want.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own these characters. They all belong to J.K. Rowling.

**Author's Notes:** Here you go. I was bored last night so She's A Star gave me a prompt to write about. And here's the result. I actually liked this one, except towards the end. And especially the ending. My muse died on me.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Oh, and I'm too lazy to proofread so sorry for any mistakes.

- - - - - - - -

Beautiful Bird

            "Come on Fred, hurry it up! He'll be here any minute!" George frantically prodded his twin. Fred continued pouring the potion in the pumpkin juice, acting as if he hadn't heard anything.

            "There! It's in. This will be brilliant," he laughed. Fred and George sat down with a seat between them and waited for Ron to show up. They didn't have to wait long for just at that moment the Great Hall doors opened and Harry, Ron, and Hermione strolled in.

            The three walked over towards the twins saying good morning to the ones that acknowledge them. Harry and Hermione sat down across from Fred and George while Ron looked for a seat near them.

            "Here you go little bro, we saved you a seat," called George, pointing to the seat next to him. Ron eyed it suspiciously, wondering what was wrong with the picture.

            "Right, you expect me to sit there? I don't think so."

            "No really, we…"

            "Vowed to be nice to everyone today…"

            "So we saved you a seat." Ron still eyed the seat questioningly, looking out of the corners of his eyes, trying to find a way out of getting out of sitting there. Hermione, quite fed up with Ron, elbowed Harry.

            "Harry, go sit there so Ron can sit down and stop standing over me. It's making me nervous."

            "Why do I have to sit there?" Harry exclaimed, staring incredulously at her.

            "Because…because…I'm Head Girl and I said so. Besides, who knows what they've done to that seat and you've defeated Voldemort before so you can handle it," she shot back, adding the last bit quickly. Harry, seeing where this could go slowly got up. He looked towards the twins, silently asking them if they _had_ done something to the seat. Fred smiled and shook his head no. George pointed to the drink in front of the seat and mouthed, "Love potion." Harry nodded understandingly.

            While Harry moved to the other side of the table and Ron looked at Hermione sheepishly, Fred quickly switched the drinks so the one with the potion now resided in front of Ron.

            The rest of the breakfast, Fred and George watched Ron intently making sure he drank the whole cup of juice. Once or twice they casually asked if Ron was going to finish it, hoping he would become possessive of it. Once Ron yelled out that they had poisoned the drink and now he was going to die but Hermione scolded him and said that they would never do that. Fred and George quickly agreed.

            When Ron took the last drink, the twins slowly smiled to themselves. _Now_, they thought, _we wait. _ At that moment, though, Ron stood up with Harry and Hermione and was about to leave, when George, asked:

            "Ron, how do you feel?" Ron looked at him.

            "What do you mean? You did poison it, didn't you?! I knew it!"              
            "God, Ron, get off it! We didn't poison you!" Fred shouted. A few of the other students turned to look at was going on.

            "Then why did you stare at me the whole breakfast and ask me how I feel? Hmm?" he asked quizzically.

            "Can't we wonder about our favorite little brother?" George asked sweetly.

            "Come on Ron, let's go," Hermione said pushing him a little towards the exit. Fred and George smiled a little wider thinking this was it; Ron would act on his love for her through the love potion. They started walking without so much as a "Hermione, you're looking lovely today."

            The trio exited leaving behind a sour Fred and a disappointed George.

            "Why didn't it work?" Fred asked angrily.

            "Something must have gone wrong with the potion," George decided.

- - - - - - - -

            It being a Saturday and quite nasty outside, the three decided to head back to the dormitories to get a few books and go to the library to work. In the common room the boys split from Hermione and said they would be back in a minute.

            Upon entering the room Harry saw Hedwig sitting on his bed with a letter in her beak.

            "Hedwig! What's that you got? A letter? I wonder who from…" Harry walked over to her and took the letter. He looked over at Ron to tell him that it was a just a blank piece of parchment and noticed a peculiar look on his face.

            "Ron?" he asked cautiously. Ron walked over to Hedwig and started stroking her feathers.

            "What a beautiful bird, such a lovely bird. Hedwig, how are you my love?" he asked stroking her feathers. A look of horror attached itself to Harry's face.

            "Ron, you need to step away from my bird. As in right now."

            Ron continued to stare at her lovingly, stroking her head. Harry, quite scared, snatched her up and threw her out the window. He watched her fall a few feet before she realized the situation and opened her wings to fly.

            "Oy! Harry, what'd you do that for?!" Ron exclaimed running to the window. Harry looked out with him.

            "She'll come back and try to kill me probably but it was for her own good," he muttered more to himself.

            "She was perfect. I'll miss her…maybe she flew up to the Owlry. Let's go see." Ron stared to go for the door when Harry grabbed the back of his robe and yanked him back.

            "First, we're going to get Fred and George up here," he stated matter-of-factly.

            "Why do we need them up here?" Ron asked wriggling his way out of Harry's grip.

            "They slipped you some love potion at breakfast and I think its effect is not the one we wanted."

            "They did not! If they did I would have known."

            "Then why are you paying such attention to Hedwig now? Attention that's scaring me," Harry asked, eyeing him.

            "I have no idea what you are talking about. I just think she is beautiful. There's nothing wrong with that is there?" he asked miffed. Harry shook his head.

            "Right. Well, you wait right here and don't go anywhere, I'm going to go fetch Fred and George." Harry started walking towards the door.

            "Why can't I come with you?" Ron asked, masking some hurt.

            "Fine, you want to come and look for them with me?"

            "Are you kidding? No. I'll stay right here. Oh, and if you see Hedwig, tell her I have a letter I want her to send. That is if you don't mind if I borrow her."

            Harry looked at him disbelievingly. He knew that Ron had no letter to send, he'd been with him all day yesterday and went to sleep after him. Unless, of course, he wrote one while he was in the lavatory which was unlikely.

            "How about not. Wait here." Harry ran down the stairs, preparing himself for the run to the Great Hall. He was almost to the door out when he heard his name called. Skidding to a halt he looked behind him. Fred and George were frantically waving him over to the table they were sitting at. Walking casually as not to raise alarm he joined them, sitting with his back to the room.

            "So?" they asked, quietly.

            "What the bloody hell did you guys do?! I thought it was supposed to be aimed at Hermione!" he growled.

            "Yeah, it was. What happened?" George asked intrigued.

            "He's in love with Hedwig!" Harry yelled a little too loudly. The Patil twins looked over and gave him an evil look for interrupting their studies. Fred and George looked at him with open mouths.

            "What?" Fred asked slowly.

            "He's in love with Hedwig. When we went upstairs he started petting her saying what a lovely bird she was. Frankly, I was scared."

            George and Fred sighed.

            "At least it's that. We were thinking something much worse. Like, he was in love with his bed or something.

            "Yeah, can you imagine that?" Fred laughed. Harry couldn't believe his ears.

            "What do you mean worse?! He's up there doing who knows what! Probably dreaming about molesting my bird! It looked like he wanted to kiss her!"

            "Hmm. That could be a problem."

            "Where is he now?"

            "I told him to stay upstairs," Harry answered, gesturing over his shoulder.

            "We should go see what he's doing," George said. The other two nodded and stood up.  They walked towards the staircase leading up to the fifth year dormitories. On the way across the room they received several suspicious looks, asking what they thought they were up to. The twins gave them their biggest grins further deepening the people's suspicion.

            Entering the room, the three saw that Ron had not listened to Harry and was now missing.  Looking around they saw a blanket missing off his bed.

            "I wonder where he went. And with a blanket no less," George pondered.

            "I don't know…wait! He's probably at the Owlry!" Harry predicted.

            "Why would he take a blanket to the Owlry, unless he was planning to…" Fred left his sentence unfinished as the three looked at each other in horror. Without another word they darted out of the dormitory, through the common room and down the hall.

            Getting to the Owlry seemed to take a lot more time than it usually did. Along the way they literally ran into several students and a few teachers. When the teachers yelled for them to stop, they just waved over their shoulders and shouted they'd be back and not to move. Of course, they knew that'd probably get them in trouble but the dilemma in front of them was more important at the moment.

            Finally reaching the tower they threw open the door startling some owls into doing their business. In the middle of the floor lay Ron on the blanket from his bed. He had jumped too when the door was thrown open.

            "What's your problem?! Trying to give everyone a heart attack?" he shouted.

            "Ron! What are you doing?" George gasped between breathes.

            "I'm laying here until Hedwig comes back," he stated.

            "I think you need to come with us," Fred said, starting for him. Ron, seeing this, jumped up and moved over to farthest wall.

            "I don't think so. I'm staying right here. She's expecting me. I can't just leave."

            "She's not expecting you Ron," Harry said sympathetically. Seeing that Ron wasn't going to cooperate, Harry and George started towards Ron too spreading out on either side of Fred so they formed a kind of half circle in front of him. Just as Ron was about to say something George and Harry pounced on him, with Fred staying where he was to catch him if he got away. Ron, not suspecting this, let out a startled cry as the two took a hold of his arms. They started to drag him out.           

            "No! Let me go! Hedwig! I need her! I'm supposed to wait for her! Hedwig!! I'll be back! I promise!!!" Ron's cries echoed out as he was dragged down the stairs and back into the main castle.

            "It's…for…your…own…good," Harry puffed out, struggling against the fighting Ron.

            "Nothing's good for me without the beautiful Hedwig!" Ron almost sobbed. They stopped walking and looked at Ron. This was unbelievable though Harry.

            "I have an idea…" Fred began.

- - - - - - - -

            "There we go," Fred smiled. He looked down at Ron tied to his bed.

            "He definitely can't get away from there," George added.

            "How long does he have to stay like that?" Harry asked.

            "Well, the potion should wear off within twenty-four hours," the twins informed him.  Harry looked at one of their watches.

            "So he has to stay tied up here for another 21 hours?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Fred and George looked at each other.

            "I suppose so…" They looked at Ron squirming trying to get free. Harry felt guilty about doing this and was quite perturbed seeing him like that. But what could he do? He was trying to shag his owl.

            "Ron, I'm—" Harry was cut off by the dormitory room door slamming open.

            "Ronald Weasley where have you been?! You kept me waiting for an hour then when I came to check on you guys you weren't—" Hermione stopped dead in her tracks. She looked at the bed where Ron was tied. Her eyes traveled to Harry's face and from there to the twins.

            "What's…" She paused taking in the site again. She noticed that Ron's hands and feet were bound with extra ties, his mouth stuffed with a scarf. Shifting her weight to her other foot she opened her mouth and closed it a few times. Finally she asked,

            "What's going on here?" Harry, Fred, and George looked at each other.

            "Um…well, you see…" Harry started but faltered.

            "We were…"

            "You see, Fred and I came up with a new potion. A kind of joke love potion," George supplied. Harry and Fred looked at him. George continued on.

            "Yes, you see, instead of falling love with _someone_,"

            "You fall in love with_ something_!" Fred finished. Hermione continued to stare at them. Then understanding swept her face.

            "You gave that potion to Ron?! Did you test it first? How do you know if it's safe?"      

            "Hermione! Calm down!" George shouted.

            "We tried it on ourselves first, no harm done," Fred lied. She walked over to the bed and stared down at Ron who was spitting the scarf out.

            "Why do you have him tied down?" she asked glaring at Fred. Harry answered this one.

            "Because he supposedly fell in love with Hedwig and he's been trying to get to her. So to protect her from him we tied him down so he can't get up to the Owlry."

            "How long does the potion last?" she asked.

            "It lasts about twenty-four hours. So, as long as he stays away from Hedwig until tomorrow morning, we're good."

            "Why don't you just let him go and we can keep an eye on him?"

            "We've already tried that. He'll run away," Harry answered.

            "Oh." Hermione walked over to the other side of the bed. "So what do we do?" The four pondered this for a while, wondering what was next.

            "I saw George and I go downstairs and make sure no one comes up. You two stay here and watch him." Harry and Hermione nodded. They made themselves comfortable on some of the beds while Fred and George made their way downstairs.

            Hermione reached over and grabbed her bag she had dropped on the floor when she came in. She started taking books out and some parchment.

            "I knew there was a reason I brought my stuff up with me," she smiled.

            "You did because you didn't want to leave it downstairs?" Hermione looked over at him and shook her head.

            "Any way you look at it, at least I can get some homework done now." Harry rolled over on his back and stared at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of Ron struggling.

            The next few hours passed uneventful as Harry tried to find things to do. He just wasn't in the mood to work on school work, as Hermione suggested many times. Once he had to take Ron to the lavatory and stay in the room so as to make sure he didn't escape to go do naughty things to his bird. He felt extremely uncomfortable waiting, but he told himself it was for Hedwig's own well-being.

            Finally lunch time rolled around. Harry was starting to get hungry. He looked over at Hermione and asked her what they should do.

            "Well, I suppose we could go get lunch and bring it back here. And of course, bring Ron some."

            "But what about him? We can't just leave him here."

            "We'll just tell Fred and George what's going on and to make sure he doesn't get out."

            "Alright, let's go, I'm getting real hungry. Sorry, Ron…" he added as he saw his friend give an especially violent tug at his chains. The two headed down into the common room and searched for Fred and George. They found them in a corner selling some first years some of their taffies. The first year saw Hermione coming and ran. Fred and George, perplexed by why he took off turned around to the glaring face of Hermione.

            "You two were supposed to be keeping watch!"

            "Ah, Hermione, we got bored with it. Nobody was going up there anyway," Fred answered trying to brush her away.

            "You don't know that! Someone could have gone up when you weren't looking!"

            "But they didn't, did they?" George asked smugly.

            "What are you guys doing down here anyway?" Fred asked.

            "We're going to go get some lunch, so you have to watch Ron," Harry put in and before the twins could answer he and Hermione went through the door and out into the hall.

- - - - - - - -

            Arriving back an hour later, Hermione and Harry saw that the twins were still entertaining. Slipping past the crowd unnoticed they headed upstairs. Upon entering the room though, they immediately noticed something was wrong. Ron was no longer tied to the bed and there were no traces of him anywhere.

            Running back downstairs, they waved frantically at the twins motioning them to meet them out in the hall. Fred and George broke away and went out the door.

            "What?" they asked irritably.

            "Ron's gone!" Hermione hissed.

            "That's impossible! We would have seen him," George laughed.

            "Not if you were doing what you just were!" Hermione said.

            "Fine, so maybe we weren't watching a hundred percent of the time; but that isn't our fault. You            two were the ones that took over an hour to go get lunch."

            "Argh!" Hermione yelled in frustration.

            "Hey, arguing is not going to help us find him. Now, we have to think. Where would he go? And what is he doing with poor Hedwig?" Harry demanded.

            "The Owlry again?" George offered.

            "Maybe. Alright, let's split up and search everywhere. We have to keep him away from my owl," Harry ordered.

            The group split up and started their frantic search. Harry ran up to the Owlry only to find it devoid of any humans. Looking out the window he saw the twins running towards the lake. Hermione headed to Hagrid's to see if he'd seen him. Her questioning only seemed to raise more questions and not enough answers. No, I haven't seen him, why do you ask? What do you mean, oh nothing? She thanked Hagrid quickly and set off towards the lake to help the twins look.

            Their search however turned up no Ron when they met Harry at the base of the castle.

            "We can't just give up!" he shouted, near tears. "Hedwig needs us!" The three others looked at him and then exchanged glances. They were starting to think Harry was taking this a little too far. Hedwig could take care of herself if the need arose.

            "He could be doing unnatural things to her!" Harry continued. The twins grimaced. If that's what they were going to find, they'd rather not find Ron at all and never think those thoughts again. Not wanting to see Harry break down, they pledged to find him.

            The rest of the afternoon passed as the four searched hi and low for Ron. By the time dusk arrived everyone had had about enough. They met up in Hagrid's garden.      

            "It's useless," Harry sighed, "we're too late."

            "Shh! Do you hear that?" Hermione whispered. Everyone fell silent and listened. They heard a low mumbling noise. Crawling towards it, they spotted a figure lying among the flowers. It was Ron! Hermione mouthed the words, creep up on him, to the three boys as she started to crawl ahead.

            As soon as they were close enough to make out what he was saying, they listened.

            "That was excellent. Very enjoyable. You are such a gorgeous, wonderful bird." Looking up they saw Hedwig perched on Ron's stomach. Everyone exchanged appalled looks.

            "We really need to do that again," Ron, dare Harry believe it, purred. He couldn't stand it any longer. He jumped up and yelled:

            "You sick, nasty, perverted….little…you!" Ron, startled by the noise, jumped about a foot in the air. He rolled over, knocking Hedwig off, to face Harry.

            "What? What do you mean?"   

            "You know exactly what I mean! It's a _bird_ for bloody sakes! That's just not normal!" Ron stared at him bewildered. Then his face hardened.

            "Hedwig and I can have a candlelit lunch, watching the Giant Squid swim in the lake and then lay in the flowers to talk if we want. You're not going to stop us Harry!" Ron stood up and brushed off some grass. Harry stared at him, his mouth hanging slightly open.

            "Oh, um, well…"

            "Well what?" Ron snapped.

            "I, um, thought you did something else," Harry muttered sheepishly. Ron looked over at Hedwig.

            "I must go now, my love, but until tomorrow." With that Ron blew her a kiss and rubbed her head. Hedwig leaned in, clearly enjoying the rub. By this time Fred, George, and Hermione had stood up.

            "Well, I'm going to head off to bed," Ron announced. He started towards the castle, humming a little tune.

            Everyone left behind looked around at each other.

            "At least the potion will be gone by tomorrow," Fred sighed.

            "Yes, thankfully. No more having to worry. Hedwig seemed to like it too…" Harry trailed off. The other three gave each other knowing looks.

- - - - - - - -

            The next morning Ron woke up to Hedwig nudging him with her beak.

            "Oy! Hedwig! Go away! I'm trying to sleep!" He swatted at her lazily. Hedwig kept nudging, now with a little bit more power and sharp beak.

            "OW! Bloody hell bird! What'd you do that for?!" Ron yelled. Hedwig hooted angrily. She wanted to be rubbed and petted like yesterday. Harry opened an eye to see what was going on. Ron saw this and said,

            "Harry, your bird won't leave me alone. She keeps hooting at me."

            "I know, she wants you to love her like you were yesterday," Harry answered blearily but not without a small smile.

             "What? What do you mean love her like yesterday? What the bloody hell is going on? Hey, cut it out!" Hedwig had just snipped his finger; she was starting to get annoyed.

            "Yeah, yesterday, you loved her. I can't believe you don't remember."

            "What _are_ you talking about Harry?!"  Harry didn't answer and instead buried his face into his pillow to stifle his laughter. It was funny to see Ron so confused on why his bird was attacking him.

            "Never mind, Ron. I'm going back to bed. Have fun with her." Harry turned over and pulled the covers over his head. Ron looked at him with confusion. He had no idea what was going on and was quite frightened by Hedwig at the moment. Something must have happened he thought, but what? He couldn't really remember. He'd have to ask Hermione what Harry was going on about.

            He got up, got dressed and headed downstairs with  Hedwig in tow. He found Hermione in a chair by the fire.

            "Hey Ron!" she called, "I see you and your lovebird are together this morning." She couldn't help but laugh at her own joke.

            "Sorry couldn't help myself." Ron glared at her. He realized she was going to be of much help either.

            "What's going on?" he demanded.

            "What do you mean? Hedwig just loves you. Don't you love Hedwig?"

            "Well, yeah, but not this much!" he protested. Hermione let out another laugh.

            For the rest of the day, Hedwig followed Ron around, hooting softly when he stopped. Whenever Harry or Hermione said something, there was always a little remark about him and the bird. By the end of the day, they told him everything that had happened. Ron sat with a scowl on his face.

            "Cheer up Ron," Harry laughed, "at least now you have someone to lie in the flowers and talk with." Hermione and the twins burst into laughter.

- - - - - - - -

**A/N 2: **Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. The ending, sucked I know, but what can ya do?

Please review, I would love you forever. :-D


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